How to Get the Instrumental of a Song for a Cover or a Freestyle

Get the instrumental of a song to sing or rap over for a cover, a freestyle or practice: which track you need, how to download it and how to record over it.

A cover, a freestyle and a practice session all start from the same thing: the song with its singer taken out, so your voice can lead. That is the instrumental. Here is how it differs from a karaoke track and a backing track, how to get it from the song you already have with Vocal Remover, how to record over it, and how to turn your cover into a video.

Instrumental, karaoke track or backing track?

• Instrumental: the song with the vocals taken out. Everything else stays: the beat, the band and the arrangement.
• Karaoke track: a backing track made for singing along, usually with the words on screen.
• Backing track: any recording you perform over, named for the job it does. An instrumental becomes a backing track the moment you sing over it.

For a cover you record, a freestyle or practice at home, the instrumental is the one you want: it is the record itself, at its own tempo and in its own key. Backing track, instrumental or karaoke explains the difference in more detail.

When there is no official instrumental

Some releases come with an official instrumental, and when one exists it is the music straight from the session. Many songs never get one. Vocal Remover starts from the finished song instead: upload it as it is, vocals and all, and you get the instrumental, with the vocals on their own beside it.

How to get the instrumental with Vocal Remover

1. Open Vocal Remover and press Choose a song, pick one with From library, or drop the file on the console: an MP3 or WAV of 30 seconds to 10 minutes, up to 200 MB.
2. Wait for the previews. The desk shows how far it has got, and you can leave the page: pick the song again later and its tracks open.
3. Press play. The desk plays a 30-second stretch of your song; turn on LOOP to keep it going round.
4. Press MUTE on the VOCALS channel, or SOLO on the INSTRUMENTAL channel, to hear the music on its own.
5. Light LYRA, VEGA, ORION and NOVA in turn and keep the one your ears prefer. Listen for traces of the singer in the quieter moments: the cleaner the instrumental, the more your own voice stands out.
6. Choose WAV or MP3 under FORMAT, then press Download on the INSTRUMENTAL channel. Or press Download both to get the vocals and the instrumental in one ZIP named after the song.

Every download is the whole song. Under EXPORT MODELS, the VOCALS and INSTRUMENTAL rows follow the MODEL lamp you lit until you light a lamp in a row, so the instrumental can come from one lamp and the vocals from another. Each file's name says its lamp, for example Midnight - Instrumental (ORION).wav. If the whole song is not ready yet in a lamp the download needs, 02 OVERVIEW shows how far it has got, for example Preparing ORION: 42%, and the download starts by itself when it is ready. Keep Vocal Remover open until it starts.

Why download both

The vocals are worth keeping next to the instrumental. While you learn the song, play them quietly under your own voice to check your phrasing and where each line comes in, then mute them for the take. Both files run the full length of the song, so they stay in time when you start them at the same point.

Recording your voice over it

• Record over the WAV. At 24-bit, 44.1 kHz it keeps the full quality of the music; the MP3, at 320 kbps, is handy for rehearsing on your phone.
• Place the instrumental at the very start of your session's timeline and record your voice on a new track, so the two stay in time.
• Wear headphones while you record, so the music does not spill into your microphone.
• Record a few takes and keep the best lines from each. The instrumental stays the same every time, so they all fit.

When the cover is mixed, Mastering makes it ready to release, louder, clearer and balanced, so it holds its own on a playlist.

A sing-along video in Karaoke

Want other people to sing it too? The song is already in your LimePulse library, so in Karaoke you pick it under From library, with nothing to upload again. The music plays without the vocals, you paste the words, and every word lights up as it is sung. How to make a karaoke video covers every step.

A video for your cover

Your finished cover deserves a video of its own. Upload your mix to the Music Visualizer with your cover art, and it becomes a video that moves with your voice and the music, widescreen for YouTube or vertical for Shorts, Reels and TikTok. How to make a music visualizer for YouTube shows how.

Hear it before you choose a plan

You can hear the previews of up to 3 different songs before you choose a plan, in every lamp, as often as you like. Downloading the tracks is part of the Creator plan, which also covers every LimePulse studio. Every control on the desk is explained in the Vocal Remover documentation.

Rights come with the song

An instrumental is still the song. The music belongs to the people who wrote and recorded it, and taking the vocals out does not change that. Post or release covers made with these tracks only of your own songs, of songs you have licensed, or of songs whose owners allow it, and expect YouTube to check the upload against Content ID, as it does any music.

Need the voice instead, for a remix or a mashup? Read how to make an acapella.

Remove the vocals now